Your word for 2013

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Each year I ask my clients to think about the one word that is the word for the year. It is the word that defines the year for them.  It is a word to use when times are tough and things are rough. It is the word to celebrate their goals for the new year. 

In the last 2 years I have initiated this, I have had different words.  In 2011 it was blessings. In 2012 it was thrive.  For 2013 is FABULOUS!

This year I am looking forward to all the fabulous connections, blessings and more that life will bring.  What is fabulous? Over the top, amazing and magical.  I am looking forward to this word driving what I do with my business and my life. 

What is your one for the year? The word that will describe  your goals and more for 2013?

Setting Your Goals One Step at a Time

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Is making changes in your home or office are at the top of your list for the new year you are on target.  Getting organized is one of the top three new year’s resolutions every year.  Like any change, taking small steps get you to where you want to go. 

Be sure to set positive, specific, measurable, date driven steps to accomplish your goals.  Write it down, exactly how you will go about the change and the deadline you have.  A measureable goal helps you see what you have accomplished and making yourself accountable to a date makes your success assured. 

Here are some ideas to help your organizing and productivity this year.

If your goal is to declutter your home and get organized

  • I will declutter one junk drawer in the kitchen or other small space in my home in 2 weeks.
  • I will keep 10 pairs of pants and eliminate the rest by next Sunday.
  • I will spend 10 minutes every day going through my mail and eliminating paper.
  • My family will have a nightly 10 minute pick up time to get toys and clothes back to their homes.

If your goal is to work smarter and be more productive

  • I will add one hour first thing in the morning to work toward a project that is of primary importance.
  • I will add 10 contacts to my data base this week to grow my business.
  • I will have a 5 minute meeting daily with my assistant to set my plan in motion for the day.
  • I will spend 15 minutes at the end of the day writing my list for tomorrow, putting paper back into folders, and filing emails to get ready for the next day. 

If your goal is to be more organized about money, save money and improve finances

  • I will save $10 a week by automatically withdrawing to a savings account.
  • I will write down every expense for one month by category to determine where I can spend less. 
  • I schedule one hour every week for administrative time to pay bills and work with paper.

 If your goal is to improve your health

  • I will walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
  • I will drink 2 glasses of water each morning before I leave the house and 1 glass with each meal during the day.
  • I will be in bed by 10:30 every other evening.

Whatever your goal, whatever your steps, remember to establish these firmly in a spot during the day.  I like to do my baby steps first thing, early in the day, or otherwise the day gets away from me. If you miss a day, just get right back to it the next day.  We can’t do every goal and be successful.  Aim for one big area this year and see what you accomplish.  Tackle your goals in small bites and see the difference for yourself!

5 Tips to Organizing and Decorating for the Holidays

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Getting your decorating done for the holidays can be overwhelming! Over the years you have accumulated so many darling decorations, there is so much to sort through, there are so many places in your home to decorate, and there is only so much time.  These 5 tips can help you get started and get finished with getting your decorating done. 

1.  Walk through your home and visualize the decorations in place. What special decorations always sit in one area?  What areas are focal points in your home for your family and your holiday guests? What decorations are important to your kids?  Start with a visual reminder of what is most important to you.  Write down notes or draw pictures to help you as you work.

2.  Review your calendar and see what time you have and when you want to be complete.  If you have 2 weeks until a major event at your home, this accountability will help you.   If not, set a date for completion for yourself.

3. Enlist the elves! Ask your family for help of even the smallest kind. Can your kids or husband set up the tree? Can they take down boxes and take our ornaments carefully? Can you pay your cleaning lady to come an extra day to assist?  Put on the holiday music and get moving. 

4. Choose a strategy to get the job done. It can be decorate room by room, decorate your door frames and table tops, or whatever strategy appeals to you.  It will prevent you from roaming from space to space and help you get areas complete.

5. Know the emotion of “enough”.  This season of abundance often means you never feel that you are done decorating.  Perfectionism may creep in and decorating goes on, and on, and on.  Knwoing what “enough” feels like makes a difference in moving forward to the next step of your holiday preparations.

What are your tips for decorating this holiday season?

Deck the (Decluttered) Halls

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Holiday time is almost here! November begins our holiday celebrations with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah and New Year’s Eve.  Our holidays bring amazing joy and lots to do at our homes.  Doing just a little decluttering makes it easier to decorate your home and helps you feel prepared.  Spend on hour on one of these four areas to help you get prepared for your most memorable holiday. 

•Declutter last year’s holiday cards. It is a powerful way to prepare for this year’s cards by collecting addresses and eliminating extra paper clutter. You will be prepared knowing the number of cards to order too!   Just a little less paper means a lot less stress. 

• Declutter the toys in your home.  There is no better way to prepare than by sharing your blessings with other’s less fortunate!  Your kids can be a part of the process in choosing what is donated.  They can choose 3 toys to donate and bless others.  If you have unopened toys or crafts from previous years, it is a great experience for you and your children to bring these to local philanthropies for gift giving. 

 • Declutter your decor as you decorate.  While you are decorating for the holidays, create an awareness of what has lost meaning or value to you in your home.  Whether it is a knick-knack or books, you can declutter while you decorate to create space for the holiday decorations and create a space for new decor after the holidays.  Thrift stores and consignment shops appreciate these items for upcoming holiday shoppers.

•Declutter your holiday decorations.  Keepsake decorations can be stored and marked to honor wonderful memories and preserve these items to share with your family.  Decorations that are in good condition are an excellent donation to local philanthropies and a special way to share the joy of the holiday. 

 Decluttering before decorating makes our holiday less stressful and more joyful.  Put on holiday music and get started on one of these small projects.  If you struggle with getting started or following through with your decluttering, give me a call to assist.

Organize Your Life Webinar Series

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Save your sanity and get organized in 2013!

Is getting organized one of your New Year’s resolutions? Then Join me this January for 10 amazing webinars from a dream team of presenters for Get Organized month. These classes will help you focus, plan, and organize your time, space, and information.
http://theprofessionalorganizer.com/events/organize-your-life-webinar-series/ …. get a special facebook discount with code “fbdeal” for 10% off all classes.

Webinar classes include how to organize your time, your paper, your kids, your students, your technology, hoarding and more!

  • Classes offered share specific tools and techniques to impact your daily life. 
  • Nationally known professional organizers and productivity coaches available to you in your home by webinar.
  • Affordable solutions to learn about organizing and take that next step in your home or office. 

 Classes begin January 3 and run all through Get Organized Month 2013.  Take a step to make 2013  your most organized year yet!

Organizing Your ‘Frig (refrigerator)

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Its one place in your home every person uses! Its one place that has very limited space with no option for expansion.  Doesn’t your refrigerator need to be organized? Yes it does! Use these 4 tips to get your ‘frig organized.

  • Think about where food keeps best in what temperature and what you need access to most frequently.  Milk keeps best on the top shelf in the back. Condiments can have a space in the door.  Make it easy to reach items you use every day. 
  • Think about categories to keep together.  Categories make not be all the same size and shape containers but consolidating in groups makes it easy to find items.  Categories can include condiments, dairy, vegetables, fruit, and leftovers.  Map out a plan for where categories fit best in the space.
  • Think about uniform leftover containers.  Having 3 sizes of the same shape of containers makes it easy to store leftovers.
  • Think about aligning your refrigerator clean out with trash day.  It is important to have a routine that allows for discarding leftovers after a certain amount of time. Having a dry erase board on the ‘frig helps with using leftovers too!

An organized frig saves you time, saves you money and helps you know what you have to get dinner on the table.  What does your ‘frig look like?

Items pictured can be found at The Container Store www.containerstore.com

Six Tips for Turkey Time

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Time for the turkey trot~ the time of year to get your turkey and Thanksgiving dinner in order! Families and friends gather to celebrate a day of gratitude and connection.  What will make your day focused on thanksfulness?  Here are a few organizing ideas.

  • Get ahead with a list.  Having a plan makes all the difference. The list begins with who, what, where, when and how. Who will be attending? What will be needed? Where will it be held and what time? And HOW can everyone contribute?
  • Get the goodies.  Assign everyone a job, no matter if it is bringing the canned cranberries and rolls. Everyone wants to contribute so be a team player with assignments or step up and volunteer.
  • Get going.  Get ahead with your shopping list by going through your cabinets for supplies, including plates and utensils.  Shop early for items that are non-perishable. Shop in the evening early in the week to avoid crowds.
  • Set up ahead.  You can set up your food stations early in the week as well as tables and chairs.  If you are going out, call for reservations early too for best seating.
  • Time it all out. There are lots of goodies and only one oven so create a timeline for how you will cook. Remember that turkeys take time to thaw so plan on extra time for this.
  • Take time to be thankful. As you are preparing and enjoying your time together, spend a few minutes talking about gratitude.  

Happy Turkey Time everyone!   What helpful hints do you have for your family’s turkey trot?

10 Tips for an Organized Home

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10 tips for an organize home

 

Home should be where we feel the most nurtured and in control. However that is not always the case with too many papers coming in, too many toys and too little time.  Follow these 10 tips to make a difference and create an organized home.

  • Start with a place for everything and everything in its place. Every item in your home should have a home.
  • When shopping, know where the new stuff is going in your home when it arrives
  • Set a timer to declutter.  Just 15 minutes makes a difference!
  • Set a time each evening for the 7 minute sprint.  During this time, your family gets everything back to where it goes and everyone works together.
  • Establish a paper command center with your calendar, slots for paper (action, pay, file) and a bulletin board for invitations and reminders.  Set a time weekly for your admin time to go through and work through your papers.
  • Lists make a difference in keeping clutter out of your head.  Keep your list in a notebook in categories. Go back and prioritize what’s on the list before starting to tackle it.   Decide on 3 Most Important Tasks to get knocked out early in the day.
  • Create routines for each day to conquer the regular stuff like laundry and dinner.  Decide if you are doing one load daily of laundry or assigning days to colors of laundry.  Make dinner early in the day with a crockpot or do a series of dinners on Sunday. Routines should fit your personal style.
  • Host a family meeting weekly to communication and collaborate.  At the meeting write in activities on the family calendar, talk about upcoming events and have some family fun!
  • Ask for help! Whether it is clearing the table or cleaning the toilets, ask your family to be a part of the organizing and cleaning.  Post a chart with everyone’s responsibilities, including deadlines.
  • Once a season, set a Saturday to do a little catch up.  Busy families need a day to restore order in their homes, in their closet, and in their pantries.

Share your tip for home organizing too!

10 Tips for Time Management at Work

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So much to do and so little time to do it all! It is no wonder we feel drained, unproductive and overwhelmed at work.  Follow these 10 tips to make a difference in your efficiency and effectiveness at work. 

  • Choose a planner that works for you. It can be as simple as a spiral notebook or a Google calendar.  Having one place to consolidate dates makes it easy to keep up with activities, projects and tasks.
  • Use lists. Consolidate your list in one spot.  Making the list is the first step, prioritizing your activities is the next step.
  • Set your day’s priorities the night before.  When you come in to work and you know your focus, you get started right away.
  • Choose 3 Most Important Tasks and get these done early in the day.  Every day is filled with distractions and interruptions.  Getting the most important tasks done early helps you feel productive!
  • Establish times to work hard.  Have a power period in the morning and the afternoon.  These are times where you just work on one project. Turn off all distractions, including your cell phone, email, and post a note on the door for your colleagues, to keep this time sacred.
  • Keep your action items in a desktop sorter in files.  Finding papers you need to work on saves time and energy.
  • Delegate lower level tasks to an assistant.  Know what is worth your time and what is less important. Set up a process for your assistant to check back in with a time line and specific deliverables.
  • Take a break during the day to eat, walk a little and get refreshed.  You will work better with brain food. You may think you have too much to do, but a break will help you be more efficient.
  • Set specific times for email.  Do an email triage, with a quick scan and filing, and then consolidate projects and tasks on your list to work on during your power period.
  • Set a time to end your day.  It’s important to get out of your office and connect with others too. 

What are your tips for time management at work?

10 Tips for Mini Emergencies

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The world is a crazy place right now! Every day we are faced with mini emergencies that make our lives a little more difficult. Follow these ten tips for those “just in case” situations.

  • Know your options for a flat tire.  Have the phone number for roadside assistance handy in your cell phone.
  • Place a key and a back up key outside your home in a hidden spot. In case you need one and forget to replace it, you have a spare.  Make an extra car key and keep it in your purse or wallet just in case. 
  • Keep flashlights with batteries ready to go, consolidated in a basket in your laundry room.  No power at the last minute is not a problem.
  • Add the In Case of Emergency (ICE) contact to your cell phone.  Use an ! in front of the contact in addition too so it will be easy to find in your contacts.
  • Keep a list of email, cell phone and home phone numbers of your family in your wallet, cell phone or Evernote.
  • Purchase an extra cell phone charger for your car and to travel.  Being out of power means being out of touch.
  • Make a list of all the medications and all the allergies of family members. Store this in your cell phone notes under Medical Information. You will have this with you in case you are headed to the emergency room.
  • Keep emergency medical telephone numbers such as doctors, poison control, veteranarians, and rescue personnel in your cell phone or posted by your telephone.
  • Be in touch throughout the day to know your family’ plans.  Know where your spouse, kids and parents will be throughout the day.
  • Teach your kids your cell phone and their grandparents cell phone numbers. They will be able to contact someone just in case.

What is your tip… just in case?